15 August : Tributes pour in as Bangladesh mourns founding father Bangabandhu
People in all corners of Bangladesh are remembering Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the National Mourning Day as it marches forward on the path he had shown before his assassination, defeating the forces that wanted to wipe him out of history.
The country plunged into the darkness of military rules as the founding father of the nation was assassinated in the massacre of his family on Aug 15, 1975, just four years after independence, by a group of rogue army officers.
The killers could not be tried because of an Indemnity Ordinance. Finally, when his Awami League party returned to power in 1996, with Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina’s government paved the way for the trial of the killers.
Now, 11 years after executing some of the Bangabandhu murder convicts, Bangladesh is celebrating his 100th birth anniversary and the golden jubilee of independence through yearlong programmes as the day of mourning has come with renewed calls to expose the conspirators behind his assassination.
“Hopefully, names of those who plotted the conspiracy to assassinate the Father of the Nation will also come out one day,” Prime Minister Hasina said in a message.
“Although the assassins killed the Father of the Nation, they could not wipe out the principle and ideology of this great man,” added President Abdul Hamid.
Hamid and Hasina also renewed the call for transforming the grief of losing Bangabandhu into strength and building his dream Bangladesh free from hunger and poverty.
The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns to stem infections had overshadowed the celebrations of Bangabandhu’s birth centenary forcing most of the programmes online, but the National Mourning Day will be observed upon adhering to the health rules.
Hamid and Hasina will pay tribute to Bangabandhu by placing wreaths on his mural at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32 after the national flag is lowered to half-mast at sunrise.
People will pay respect to the victims of the carnage at their graves at Banani. Hasina is scheduled to travel to Gopalganj’s Tungipara to visit the grave of Bangabandhu as well.
Mosques, temples, pagodas, churches and other places of worship across the country are organising special prayers. Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and other private television stations are broadcasting while the national dailies are publishing special supplements.
THE DAY
August 15 is being observed differently in political situations since 1975. It was not observed officially for 20 years until 1996, when the Awami League assumed office and announced the day as the National Mourning Day.
The Awami League resumed observing the day through party programmes after the BNP-Jamaat-e-slami coalition government dropped the mourning day and prohibited flying the national flag at half-mast on days other than official ones after forming government in 2001.
The High Court restored the National Mourning Day in 2008 during the caretaker government.
After the Aug 15, 1975 massacre, Bangladesh’s first military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman promulgated the Indemnity Ordinance to save the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu.
Bangabandhu’s residential personal assistant Mohitul Islam on Oct 2, 1996 filed a case over the assassination after the Awami League was voted to power. The Indemnity Ordinance was abrogated on Nov 12 the same year.
Police pressed charges against 19 on Jan 15, 1997 and Dhaka District and Sessions Judge Kazi Golam Rasul condemned 15 of them to death on Nov 8, 1998. The High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin and Justice ABM Khairul Haque gave a split verdict in the appeal against the punishment.
Senior Justice Amin acquitted five of original 15 accused, but Justice Haque upheld the lower court verdict. Later, as a third judge, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim handed down capital punishment to 12 accused.
As five death-row convicts again moved the Appellate Division, decision remained pending due to a shortage of minimum requirement of three judges for a hearing session since August 2001, as several judges embarrassed to hear the case.
A five-member special bench of the Appellate Division gave its verdict on Nov 19, 2009 rejecting the appeal.
//Staff Reporter//
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